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I don't much know what to say about this grain free cookie recipe except…wow. I didn't know my stomach could stretch this much.

This is one of my proudest moments. It's better than my college graduation or the second straight time I won the Mill Creek Elementary School Spelling Bee. (Winning word: squirrel. Which I just misspelled before correcting myself. Sigh.)

I made something good on the first try. This is MAJOR. Who doesn't love a big, giant, grain-free, refined-sugar-free chocolate chip cookie?

(Clearly, I love them.)

And lest we forget all the constantly-churning controversy over “Paleo Treats” or, rather, why it's “wrong” for us Paleo/ish bloggers to call something “Paleo” when it's a cookie, a cake, or some other incarnation of a grain-free treat based around various nut flours and sweet, sweet nectar of life maple syrup (gasp!), here's what I have to say:

I've been doin' this a looong time. A long time. (So long, they let me write a BOOK about it!) And I've learned that for most people, there's nothing wrong with the occasional treat. Paleo treats used to tick me off. But not for any real good reason, other than I was occupying myself with internet indignance rather than, y'know, fostering world peace or whatevs.

If you're worried about eating, cooking with, heating, or making out with almond flour, this is a good read.

Some people rely on “treats” too heavily at the beginning of their diet-changing journey. I did. Most of us get past that. Leave people alone & keep yo' eyes on yo' own plate. (Especially if that plate is filled with BIG GIANT GRAIN FREE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE.)

CWIHC. (Caveman Would If He Could). That's a fact, jack.

Good? Good. On to the smashingly delicious paleo cookie recipe.

This one was largely inspired by The Food Lovers' paleo cookie recipe, but I did make enough changes to warrant a full write-up here. If you ever want to make regular grain-free cookies, make their recipe!

A few notes:

In addition to the ingredients listed in the recipe, you'll need tin foil to “tent” the pie plate while baking.

1 cup chocolate chips (Enjoy Life brand is available in stores and is allergen-free)

Wet ingredients

½ cup grade B maple syrup

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 eggs

½ cup palm shortening OR coconut oil, melted but not hot (I order both from Tropical Traditions)

2 Tbs. full-fat coconut milk

What to do

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In one bowl, combine the dry ingredients EXCEPT the chocolate chips. Mix well with a fork.

In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Mix them together well. I used my favorite kitchen tool, my stick blender, to do that part because I'm lazy and don't like using my wrists too much.

Add the liquid, a little at a time, to the dry ingredients, mashing and stirring the mixture until smooth.

Add chocolate chips and stir them in. At this point, the dough should be thick and NOT pourable - you should be able to ball it up and lift the whole mess out of the bowl if you want to. If you can't, it may be due to a difference in almond flour processing (almond flour can vary brand-to-brand). Just add a few extra Tbs. almond flour until consistency is correct. Note, again, that Bob's Red Mill has a coarser texture than other almond flours, and this will change the consistency of the finished product. It will still be good - HELLO! it's warm, sweet chocolate goodness - but it won't look exactly as smooth as mine, and it will be more obvious that this isn't *technically* the "real thing."

Push/Mush the mixture into the greased baking dish, smoothing it out with a spatula. (Make the center of the cookie a bit thinner than the edges. As in, mush it down.)

"Tent" the edges of the giant cookie pie with aluminum foil. This will keep the almond flour/edges from burning as it bakes. To do this, I simply placed the pie plate on top of 2 long layers of foil, then folded the edges of the foil over the edges of the pie plate.

Bake for 1 hour, checking (without opening the oven if possible until the last few checks) every 20 minutes. If a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, it's done. If not, an extra 10-15 minutes should do it. Then, remove from oven and allow it to cool. (That's important. Allow it to cool, or it will fall apart.)

Enjoy. Preferably on your birthday, or use it to bribe large chimney-dwelling men in red velour suits. Or Ed Asner, because everyone knows he's the real Santa.

Real Food Liz / Liz Wolfe is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

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I will have to buy more almond flour JUST to make this because HOLY HELL that looks good. Also, onto the whole ‘controversy’ thing…here is my two cents:
-Everyone needs to breathe and take a damn chill pill. Quit taking it so seriously.
-People are getting too wrapped up in details. The idea is to eat more locally, eat whole foods, drop the processed shit, especially grains, and try to be active. The rest? That’s individualized. Milk is OK for some people, not for others. Some people can eat lots of nuts and be ok, some people can’t. I just -recently- hit the mark in my weightloss where I almost -have- to eat a lot of nuts to make up for my calorie deficit because I just can’t eat a lot of food, nor should I (GERD).

So yeah, I’d just boo anyone who bitches at you for making a treat. They can quit snubbing their noses and start living life a WEE bit more.

Hey Megan! “Official” announcement coming as soon as the Amazon listing for Eat the Yolks is all cleaned up…Amazon is EXCRUCIATINGLY slow! Long story short, Modern Cave Girl was the title we chose long before I actually wrote the book, and what I *actually* wrote ended up being vastly wider in scope, more detailed, more meticulously researched, and pretty much totally different from what I intended! It needed a title that would reach a larger audience so we took the risk of changing the name and the marketing. You won’t be charged for your MCG pre-order (THANK YOU for that!) and the Eat the Yolks announcement is coming soon!

Probably not…unfortunately I only know that the current recipe works :/ sorry! If you try, do let me know how it goes. I’m sure there’s a cookie recipe like this out there using BRM all purpose flour if you googled it!

LOVE LOVE LOVE! I’m going to have to give this a try, and I love that you made this for Gina. I just started following her a month ago and she absolutely cracks me up. Y’all are like superstars in my slowly growing blog world…so awesome.

This sounds and looks like a must try! Home alone and sick on Thanksgiving; if I feel up to it, I will try to make this. I have no sense of taste or smell, so it may be a few days before I can appreciate it! Thanks for sharing Liz! I’m also excited about your book!

I think that would be fine! My coconut milk was very thick, so just pay attention to the consistency of the dough and be sure it’s not runny. If it is, add a bit more almond flour and perhaps a tiny smidge of coconut flour. And let me know how it goes!

It’s in the oven! Though I did use only about 3/8 cup syrup, concerned that a half cup might be too sweet for our Paleo adapted taste buds. Then after I put it in, and was licking the spoon 🙂 I realized that perhaps leaving out some of the syrup might make it too dry. We’ll see!

Hi Liz,
What can I sub for the eggs? This looks SOOoooo yummy, but eggs are not on the menu for me. They actually give me a headache! Weird, I know. Do you think applesauce, like I use in my paleo brownies would work, or should I try flax seed meal? Love your and Diane’s podcast, you two are hilarious together. Can’t wait for your book to be available. Thanks for all you do!